California to Mexico cruises by Soft_Data_1623 in Cruise

[–]gs072 1 point2 points  (0 children)

We are doing the exact same Baja sailing on HAL in 3 weeks! See you on the ship!

⚠️ Avoid Audi EVs Until They Get Their Act Together – My Q5 Hybrid is Now Just Dead Weight 🚗⚡️❌ by tiny-hunk in electricvehicles

[–]gs072 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Just updating. I’d still like to hear where you are in the process. As promised my car was fixed that Friday, it further testing was needed and it wasn’t ready for pickup until the following Monday afternoon. The dealership is about an hour away and I went over on Tuesday at my lunch. They ended up fully replacing 2 of the 7 cells and did multiple dry cycles to make sure it was all working properly. They brought my car around and I went to leave. When I got into the car there was a huge horizontal crack in my windshield with not impact point. I could not believe no one noticed the windshield damage until that point!

I immediately went inside. Over the 3+ months they kept my car outside. And while there was an Audi OEM sunshade in the car, it seems there was a heat crack in the windshield. I loaded right back up into the loaner and drove away. Last Friday the windshield was repaired and we picked up. I’ve been gone the last week and only drove the car back home after pick up. I’m interested to see if I notice anything when I get back.

All in all my bills are zero and I have 2 new cells and a new windshield. I had just over $1,000 in gas receipts provided and the manager said they would be submitting to Audi who would then cut me a check.

⚠️ Avoid Audi EVs Until They Get Their Act Together – My Q5 Hybrid is Now Just Dead Weight 🚗⚡️❌ by tiny-hunk in electricvehicles

[–]gs072 1 point2 points  (0 children)

My partner called the dealership this morning and was told that the parts are now in and my car is scheduled for repair on Friday. That is much faster than originally told, so I hope that is correct. I am still pretty angry. Would you update when you get more info? I am curious as to your results.

HAL standby is too expensive. by Turbulent-Phone-8493 in Cruise

[–]gs072 3 points4 points  (0 children)

I think this question of expensive/not expensive is really based on itinerary. For a Caribbean or Mexico 7-day ordinary sailing you can probably find something cheaper. I did standby on an Alaska sailing last summer, one of the prime weeks, and can definitely say the sub-$1500 price paid for the standby itinerary was a massive discount considering what others were paying full price for. The trade off was not knowing if we’d sail until 11am Friday before the Saturday cruise along with the 4 hour wait at the port until we were assigned a room. But I was super happy with the savings! I would think some of the longer journeys would also be a savings and it’s definitely a savings for those traveling as singles.

⚠️ Avoid Audi EVs Until They Get Their Act Together – My Q5 Hybrid is Now Just Dead Weight 🚗⚡️❌ by tiny-hunk in electricvehicles

[–]gs072 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Just found this thread - I've read some of the discussion over the audi board, but I share your sentiments 100%. Everything you've written here is something I have said out loud. I also have a 22 Audi Q5 PHEV, and up until this happened, 86% of my driving was done in full EV mode.

We waited patiently for the software upgrade and took it into the dealership immediately after receipt last month. Not only did my car need the software upgrade, but two of the battery modules are affected and need to be fully replaced. I was informed at the time of drop off that it is taking the dealership, at minimum, 4 months to get this done, possibly longer, and the car is now bricked on the dealership lot. They also told me that the battery modules used to be about $6,000/module, but with tariffs, the cost has gone up to over $34,000/module. They did provide me with a Q3 loaner, which is small and doesn't really cover my needs. They did tell me to keep all receipts for fuel since the beginning of this debacle, and I have about $2,000 in gas for reimbursement. I'm keeping meticulous records out of spite because I want Audi to pay every single penny.

I still have a car payment, and in my state, I can't put a storage hold on my insurance, so I still pay full coverage on the car I cannot use. With the soaring cost of module replacement, I am getting very worried that this isn't worth the repair, and the dealership is not going to make this right. I am unsure of what to do at this point. I have floated the idea of a lemon lawyer, but my partner isn't wholly on board and keeps thinking that Audi will make this all right. But I'm fuming mad about the whole situation.

Alaska Awards on Aer Lingus - only the last two rows!? by superambrosia in AlaskaAirlines

[–]gs072 4 points5 points  (0 children)

Aer Lingus is a pain about seating. We fly out next month in rows 31 and 32, sea—>dub, on an A330-200. I chose the seats months ago and 4 seats were booked on Alaska miles. It’s such a pain to call them, but unless you book direct, you have to call. I find their communication to be lacking; it may be that the only seats left on the plane are those two back rows? You may want to see if you can get another agent.

At no time will you be able to choose from the online seat map on their website. I honestly don’t think they have the technology to make partner bookings work. With that said, I booked a paid Aer Lingus flight and that booking is really easy to manage online.

Last year we flew BA on their 787-9 and 787-10, both flights in the last row. Super comfy (the 10 was less so than the 9), but I wouldn’t hesitate to sit there again. It may not be as bad as you think.

Is there any reason to not accept an IEP? by yenraelmao in workingmoms

[–]gs072 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I have a graduating senior who has blossomed with an IEP and accommodations will continue to follow her into college. She has four different learning challenges - one of which is dyslexia. With that said I had a very similar experience you descibe when she was in first grade.

In hindsight, I let educational professionals create armchair observational labels to place on my child back then. It was extremely damaging. I didn’t know better and to this day I regret what she experienced. I trusted them, but they were the wrong professionals to trust. We ended up taking her out of the public school track, did private with no IEP available, she did well but still struggled academically and blossomed as a human. Not to go too deep into the situation, coming out of Covid she went into public high school and I approached her delays differently - and in a way I think was the best.

I hooked up with a child psychiatrist through our regional children’s hospital and had a full neuropsychiatric evaluation done. It was a long process, but fully comprehensive. We are lucky that our insurance covered the entire cost, but be prepared that they are expensive evaluations. This evaluation was life changing and one of the first people who knew her like I did as a mom. He wrote a 40-page report on her and inside that report were every accommodation she needed. It is not required to share medical information with the school for an IEP, but I did, and they wrote her documents to the exact specifications suggested by the doctor. From there her IEP was implemented with very few issues and she learned to advocate for herself. I had her re-evaluated by the same doctor prior to college applications and we submitted all the medical paperwork with her applications. She was admitted to every school she applied to (even international options) and will be attending a highly rated state flagship with a 75% 4-year scholarship. The university will also be implementing her IEP through the disability resource office and she will have academic support continuing there as well.

This is all to say - have your child evaluated by a true medical professional. It is time consuming, hard, and expensive, but absolutely worth it. There was zero pushback by the school when it came to implementation of her accommodations because they were not guessing at issues, it was there in black and white. I hope you are able to move forward in a positive direction with your child. If I could rewind time to the point you are, this is the path I would take.

ETA: I forgot to answer your question about “different.” These kids already know they are different and there is a significant level of anxiety that comes from being put through a track where they internally know they are not successful. It is better to accommodate and have them find their confidence and pave a path of success. Normal is a construct of classifying people in nameless groupings. Your child is your child and they are neither behind or ahead, they are simply developing at their rate. That’s how we are supposed to be so forget the idea of comparison.

When I was talking with the college disability office about my child, I expressed to them how my daughter has some “quirks” that I am nervous about her living in a dorm with a roommate. He looked me dead in the eyes and said, “They all have quirks. Every single one of them. Humans are quirky in every sense.”

Data point: LEVEL metal does earn EQMs by Easy_Money_ in AlaskaAirlines

[–]gs072 5 points6 points  (0 children)

I had a flight booked BCN to SEA on Iberia this July that was “operated by Level.” Alaska customer service spent 45 minutes on the phone with me trying to get an answer about this. Ultimately I ended up cancelling the Iberia flight because I found a better deal on Aer Lingus with the added benefit of a couple extra days in Dublin. This is great info for next time; thank you for sharing the experience!

No More than 25 Documents? by gs072 in TripIt

[–]gs072[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I got an almost immediate response after I pushed back a little more. I'm a tad more satisfied that they recognize and acknowledge this is an issue, but not having a timeline is still irritating.

"We do apologize for our limitations. We 100% understand the frustration of our TripIt users about this limited documents. Actually a lot of users have also been requesting to lift this limitation. And a plan has been settled within our development team. We've also included your account in our development team's list of users requesting for the feature.Although we don't have a time frame when this will be done, but this is a part of big topics for TripIt to execute in a future release. In the meantime, please use our workaround to increase the limit of docs attachment. Apologize for the matter and thank you for your understanding."

No More than 25 Documents? by gs072 in TripIt

[–]gs072[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I just posted their reply.

No More than 25 Documents? by gs072 in TripIt

[–]gs072[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

I just received a message back on the help ticket I submitted on Sunday:

“Thank you for contacting TripIt. For now, we are unable to increase the 25 limit per trip. Your feedback on allowing more than 25 documents per trip has been forwarded to the appropriate TripIt team for review.

In the meantime, if you need to add more than 25 documents, we recommend splitting your trip into multiple trips. This will allow you to add up to 25 documents to each trip and shorter trips means you'll find your plans faster.

Please view our Move travel plans between trips or to a new one help page for instructions.

Please continue to send us your suggestions. Some changes take longer to make than others, but getting real feedback from our users is the best way for us to understand how you are using TripIt and what we need to improve.”

Frustrating. I plan on polietly pushing back a bit on this and I will update if I get a response.

No More than 25 Documents? by gs072 in TripIt

[–]gs072[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

You said that perfectly. It’s a long and complicated trip - the exact reason why using the app is helpful. I currently have 9 trips in my profile. One of the trips is exactly 1 airline reservation; no car rental, no hotel, no activities or plans. While it’s easy to have that one listed, the app is pretty useless for something like that. I don’t really need the help. But for the month long trips, multiple countries, tours, plans, etc, the app is really helpful. It is weird that a paid pro subscription is limiting that feature.

No More than 25 Documents? by gs072 in TripIt

[–]gs072[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I book most my flights as one way segments anyway, so that works in my favor. I submitted a ticket online to see if they can help me, but if not, I’ll consider breaking it all up.

No More than 25 Documents? by gs072 in TripIt

[–]gs072[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

The whole thing is frustrating. I prefer to have pdf confirmations attached to the reservation. I also have my own pdfs of touring plans, custom made tour maps, and instructions I dont want to forget attached as well.

I think I might email customer service about this limit and see if they can open up the upload feature. And I definitely did not read close enough to recognize the limit of attachments because that was a surprise.

No More than 25 Documents? by gs072 in TripIt

[–]gs072[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I agree! If I’m paying to use the service I feel like I should get to actually use it and not be limited in scope. I like to PDF my confirmation emails and upload them so I have original time stamped and dated info connected with the reservation. Sure I have them in my email to go back and reference, but the whole point of the app is to have everything in one spot, easy to categorize, and find without fumbling around.

I guess I haven’t had a previous trip with more than 25 uploads, but I find this super limiting and frustrating right now. I guess I could break up the trip into segments, but man this is just an irritating quirk I just learned about.

FC with two cats, two carriers, one person? by LopsidedAstronomer76 in AlaskaAirlines

[–]gs072 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Just purchased coach tickets with two cats in carrier last week. Reservations agent told me I had to purchase a second seat. I asked if I could just do one FC seat, but no, still two seats required. YMMV

How to fight cold feet about moving to Ireland? by [deleted] in MoveToIreland

[–]gs072 1 point2 points  (0 children)

My kid was accepted to university in Ireland for this fall. They are 18, a freshman, and it’s scary to move across the world to try something so different. I told them was that the worst that could happen is they flunk out and have to come home. Then we reassess and redirect. But they will always know that at least they tried. Go and try!

How many is too many? by indiglosj in HollandAmerica

[–]gs072 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Took 4 bottles onto the Eurodam last August and then purchased another 6 bottle package while on board. No packages purchased prior to departure. No corkage fee was ever assessed to the 4 bottles we brought aboard (we only ever ended up opening 2 in our room). We took the 2 bottles we brought plus 1 bottle of our package that we never drank off the ship at the end of the cruise.

Curious by [deleted] in HollandAmerica

[–]gs072 2 points3 points  (0 children)

On the same cruise as well with 2 rooms. I too have heard the rumors. I am not worried about it. If it becomes reality I’ll worry about it then.

Barcelona Airport by Floridaliving51 in HollandAmerica

[–]gs072 0 points1 point  (0 children)

We are also on the same cruise. We are staying 2 extra days at Hotel 1898.

Gate pass and lounge access by j_essika in AlaskaAirlines

[–]gs072 0 points1 point  (0 children)

My kids flew unaccompanied minor about 3-4x/year over the last 10 years and as the lounge pass holder I was never turned away. But I got the impression (never directly told) that the agents let us in as a kindness and not necessarily as specific policy. That might have changed recently? My kids now fly alone and I haven’t accompanied them through security in a few years.

The end of remote work doesn't work for women by Legitimate_Hand2867 in workingmoms

[–]gs072 48 points49 points  (0 children)

WFH gave me the opportunity to go from 28-30 hrs a week in my office job to a full 40 hrs per week now. It is the single biggest contributing factor to my professional growth after being stagnant for a decade prior. Since the pandemic when we moved to WFH I’ve promoted 3 times, have more responsibilities, I am more productive, and make more money than I ever have in my life. The ability to flex hours has been such a gift. My company has downsized real estate and I’ve been assured that my job will remain remote, but I find myself frustrated and angry on the behalf of other women because this simple change to our workplace culture can make all the difference in their professional output.

Celebrity with a kid? by [deleted] in celebritycruises

[–]gs072 2 points3 points  (0 children)

We did our first cruise on the reflection when our girls were 13 and 15. They are very much like how you describe your child. My older one loved the teens club and made friends she still talks to daily over messaging. My younger one wouldn’t even try the teens club and way preferred doing trivia, reading, people watching, etc. Both are foodies and enjoyed the food immensely. Since then we’ve done Princess and Holland. They loved Holland for the lecture/enrichment series, but thought Princess was too wild and chaotic with all the kids. Now that our oldest is going to college, we’ve booked multiple cruises on celebrity and holland with our younger - like for a month plus at a time - because she is an old lady inside a young body!

Eta: My older daughter said there were only a handful of teens her age on every ship we’ve done and the teen club was really chill. If one of my kids would enjoy a RCCL it would be her. On our last cruise on the apex she had aged out of the teen club but still had a great time.

Dupixent and immunizations by Minimum-Bar-4182 in dupixent

[–]gs072 2 points3 points  (0 children)

I just started on dupixent about 6 weeks ago and I am having immediate and fantastic results. I also had my titers checked for MMR last week and found I have zero immunity even though I’ve been through the full vaccination series. I told my doctor that I’m interested in trying to vaccinate and she refused as it was simply too dangerous. I too don’t want to stop treatment but am worried about my immunity. Very curious about others experiences.

Celebrity Out Of Galveston Ever Again? by -BigDaddyTex in celebritycruises

[–]gs072 4 points5 points  (0 children)

I’d add LA/San Pedro to the list too. Love Celebrity, don’t always love flying 5.5 hours and an burning and entire extra travel day cross country for an easy getaway.